Holding Cook County's Criminal Courts Accountable During The COVID-19 Pandemic - September 16, 2020
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Holding Cook County’s Criminal
Courts Accountable During
The COVID-19 Pandemic
September 16, 2020
Table of Contents
Dedication: To Those Who Lost Their Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Community Organizing in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Petition for Mass Release & Expedited Review Hearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
By the Numbers: Analyzing Cook County’s Response to COVID-19 in the Jail . . . . 10
Racial Disparities: White People Benefited Most . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Age: Older People Were Released at the Highest Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Increase in Electronic Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Types of Bonds Throughout the COVID Crisis for People in Cook County Jail . . . . 11
The COVID-19 Community Courtwatching Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Lack of Disposition: Cases at a Standstill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
“MASS RELEASE NOW: SOLIDARITY CARAVAN” ACTION ON APRIL 7, 2020 | PHOTO BY SARAH-JI RHEE
1
Dedication: To Those Who Lost Their Lives
Between April 5, 2020 and May 4, 2020, seven people lost their lives to COVID-19 while in the
custody of Cook County Jail. This report is dedicated to their memories. Our Coalition mourns
their loss and recommits to ensuring no additional members of our community die preventable
deaths in Cook County Jail.
The below portraits of the men who died in Cook County Jail were created as part of the
Decarcerate Now Virtual Quilt Project by For the People Artists Collective and Coalition
to End Money Bond member Chicago Community Bond Fund.
William Sobczyk, 53 Jeffery Pendleton, 59 Leslie Pieroni, 51
Juan Salgado Mendoza, 53 Rene Olivo, 42 Nickolas Lee, 42 Karl Battise, 64
Artists’ Statement:
“As artists and cultural workers, we know that mainstream media narrative consistently
dehumanizes the lives lost within the state’s walls, often providing very little more than a
duplication of their arrest report or criminal histories. We believe no one’s life is disposable, and
any death from COVID-19 that happens in custody was absolutely a preventable death.
We also grapple with the reality that some of the people we are memorializing in this project
have caused harm to people in our communities, and in no way aim to erase that actuality.
We want to recognize survivors while also believing that carceral punishment, and death by
incarceration, is not the solution to combating physical, sexual, and domestic violence in our
communities.”
2
Introduction
In March 2020, life as we knew it in the United States was turned upside down by the COVID-19
pandemic. People who were not incarcerated modified every possible aspect of our lives to
prevent the spread of the highly contagious and deadly virus. Environments where many people
previously gathered in person were shut down or dramatically shifted form: schools went
remote; state legislatures stopped meeting; and non-essential businesses closed completely.
Despite presenting even more extreme risks of an outbreak, jails, prisons, and immigration
detention centers remained open. Millions of incarcerated people did not and do not have
the same ability to control their environments and their risk of exposure to COVID-19. From
the moment the novel coronavirus was confirmed in the United States, communities impacted
by incarceration and advocates began calling for the release of people in jails, prisons, and
detention centers as the only surefire way of stopping its spread and flattening the curve.
Incarcerated people are among the most vulnerable to outbreaks of infectious disease. Jails,
prisons, and detention centers serve as the perfect incubators for viruses because of their
cramped and unsanitary conditions. The social distancing we have all been instructed to
practice by public health experts is impossible to achieve inside these facilities. Additionally,
hygiene items are often hard to come by for incarcerated people; facilities typically distribute
inadequate amounts of soap and cleaning supplies, and the high prices of additional supplies
for sale through facility commissaries make them inaccessible to many people inside.
Incarcerated people have a limited ability to
fight the spread of infectious disease since
they are confined in close quarters and unable to
avoid contact with people who may have been
exposed. Responses such as lockdowns, placing
people in solitary confinement, and limiting
access to visits from loved ones are punitive
and ineffective at stemming outbreaks. Equally
important, we know that isolation further
endangers people and limiting visitation also
has adverse effects.
PERSON INCARCERATED IN COOK COUNTY JAIL
MAKES A SIGN IN THEIR CELL WINDOW DURING Because of their extremely high rates of admissions
THE “MASS RELEASE NOW: SOLIDARITY CARAVAN”
and releases, jails present a particularly elevated
ACTION ON APRIL 7, 2020 | PHOTO BY SARAH-JI RHEE.
threat to both incarcerated people and also
surrounding communities. In Cook County, many dozens of people are released and admitted
from the jail every day, and thousands of employees travel in and out each week. From the
beginning of the pandemic, advocates were quick to warn that an outbreak in the jail would
impact the entire region, recommending the immediate release of as many people as possible
to reduce the possible impact after COVID-19 entered the jail.
While many elected officials quickly took dramatic steps to address COVID-19 in the community,
they were extremely reluctant to heed widespread calls to decarcerate. As in many jurisdictions
across the country, a coalition of organizations quickly banded together to demand a mass
release to protect public health in Cook County. The Coalition to End Money Bond signed onto
an open letter with demands for decarceration and improved conditions alongside
more than 100 other community, legal, advocacy, and labor organizations in mid-March. The
3
Coalition then participated in a multi-week campaign that helped reduce the number of people
incarcerated in the jail from 5,588 people on March 17th to a low of 4,031 people on May 9,
2020.
During that same time period, however, more than 500 people incarcerated in Cook County
Jail contracted COVID-19, and seven incarcerated people lost their lives. More than
400 Sheriff’s employees tested positive for COVID-19, and three died. On April 8, 2020, The
New York Times identified Cook County Jail as the top
coronavirus hotspot in the United States.
Even as COVID-19 cases skyrocketed inside Cook County Jail,
new people were admitted every day. Despite a reduction
in both admissions and the overall number of people inside
the jail in the spring, the number of people incarcerated
in the jail increased by over 1,000 over the course of the
summer, reaching 5,159 on September 4, 2020. At this
rate, Cook County will see the number of people in jail
soon return to pre-pandemic levels, running the risk
of another major COVID-19 outbreak. As long as there
is no cure, it is essential that the number of people
incarcerated be kept low so as to minimize the impact
of future outbreaks.
At the same time, the number of people incarcerated in
PERSON WITH LOVED ONE their homes on electronic monitoring, which had ballooned
INCARCERATED IN THE JAIL PROTESTING
in the spring as judges used it as a way to get people out
OUTSIDE OF THE JAIL. (APRIL 4, 2020)
of the physical jail, remains elevated at 3,257 people on
September 4th compared to 2,446 on March 17th. As a result, the total number of
people in the Sheriff’s custody, including both the jail and electronic monitoring, is
now higher (8,416 people in total) than at this time last year (8,360 people in total).
Simply put, for the first time since 2015, the number of people under Cook County’s
correctional control is moving in the wrong direction.
Simply put, for the first time since
2015, the number of people under
Cook County’s correctional control is moving
in the wrong direction.
4
Community Organizing in Response to the
COVID-19 Pandemic
The community response to the threat of
COVID-19 inside Cook County Jail began
before the virus officially entered the jail. On
March 6th, Coalition member organization
Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) first
raised the alarm about the harm that an
outbreak of the virus would cause in the jail.
One week later, more than 100 community,
legal, advocacy, and union organizations
released an open letter demanding the
decarceration of Cook County Jail in the name
of public health. While the letter focused on
the need for mass release as the only viable
“MASS RELEASE NOW: SOLIDARITY CARAVAN” ACTION
solution to “flatten the curve,” it also included ON APRIL 7, 2020 | PHOTO BY SARAH-JI RHEE.
demands for improved conditions inside the
jail and expanded rights for people on house arrest with electronic monitoring. On March 20th,
the state of Illinois shut down to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Following these initial efforts, this growing coalition launched a call-in campaign to follow-
up on the demands made in the open letter. Over the next several weeks, thousands of people
sent emails and made phone calls to Cook County’s Chief Judge, Sheriff, and State’s Attorney
demanding a mass release of people incarcerated in the jail.
A week after the open letter was issued, on March 22nd, the first
Sheriff’s deputy tested positive for COVID-19. In response,
Coalition member organizations A Just Harvest, Chicago Community
Bond Fund, and The People’s Lobby, in partnership with Illinois
Network for Pretrial Justice member Illinois Religious Action Center
of Reform Judaism (RAC-IL), organized a vigil led by faith leaders
outside the jail for the next day. Prayers were lifted up for the
health and safety of the 5,500 people incarcerated in the jail. Later
that same day, on March 23rd, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office
announced that two people incarcerated in the jail had tested
A MOTHER WHOSE SON IS positive. One of those individuals was incarcerated not because the
INCARCERATED PROTESTING
OUTSIDE OF THE JAIL. court found him to be a flight risk or a danger to the community but
(MAY 3, 2020) simply because he had not been able to pay his $25,000 bond.
At the start of the pandemic, more than 1,500 of the 5,500 people in the jail were incarcerated
while awaiting trial only because they could not afford to pay their money bonds. To emphasize
this, Chicago Community Bond Fund and Believers Bail Out partnered with Robert F. Kennedy
Human Rights to stage a mass bailout. Together, the organizations paid $120,000 in bond to
free 18 people from the jail. This act helped protect the lives of those 18 people and shone a
light on the fact that hundreds of people’s lives were being put at risk solely because of their
lack of access to wealth. The action also demonstrated the limits of individualized philanthropic
5
efforts: it would have taken millions of dollars to release everyone with an unpaid money bond.
Even then, the problem could never be solved without policy change, as each person freed was
quickly replaced by newly admitted people who could not afford to pay their money bonds.
As confirmed COVID-19 cases inside
the jail increased exponentially from
two on March 23rd to over 200 by
early April, Coalition members, other
advocates, and community organizers
looked for ways to increase pressure
on elected officials while maintaining
social distancing. On April 7th,
Coalition member organizations
worked with others to bring more
than 300 people together for a
solidarity car caravan demanding
a mass release of people from Cook
“MASS RELEASE NOW: SOLIDARITY CARAVAN” ACTION ON
County Jail, immigration detention, APRIL 7, 2020
the Cook County Juvenile Temporary
Detention Center, the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the federal Metropolitan
Correctional Center.
Throughout the course of the pandemic,
families with loved ones incarcerated in the
jail have also been consistently taking action
to demand justice for their loved ones. For
months, families have organized weekly
demonstrations outside the jail on Sundays.
One such impacted person was Cassandra
Greer-Lee, whose husband Nickolas Lee
was the third person to die of COVID-19
while in the custody of the jail. Since Nick’s
untimely and unnecessary death, Cassandra
has appeared in dozens of news stories,
spoken at rallies across the city, and is among
PERSON WITH LOVED ONE INCARCERATED IN THE JAIL the loudest voices demanding the release
PROTESTING OUTSIDE OF THE JAIL. (JULY 31, 2020)
and protection of everyone who remains
incarcerated during the pandemic.
“We knew that COVID-19 was coming in January, yet my hus-
band died in the Cook County Jail in April. The Sheriff and
other county actors responded too slowly, even after the
threat became clear. Had the Sheriff’s Office done more earli-
er, my husband and the other six men in the jail’s custody and three Sher-
iff’s employees who have died from COVID-19 might still be alive today.”
- Cassandra Greer-Lee, Widow of Nickolas Lee
6
Petition for Mass Release & Expedited
Review Hearings
On the afternoon of Friday, March 20, 2020, Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli filed
an emergency petition calling for the mass release of people incarcerated in Cook County
Jail to protect their health and the health of the public during COVID-19. The petition listed
several categories for release that largely mirrored the demands in the earlier open letter from
community groups. A group of Coalition members and partners filed an amicus brief in support
of the petition, emphasizing the serious nature of COVID-19 and the magnitude of the risk it
presents to people in jail and the broader Cook County community.
The Public Defender’s petition specifically sought mass
granting of release for categories of people, citing the
inevitable and life-threatening delay that individualized
decisions would cause. The Cook County State’s
Attorney’s Office opposed the motion and argued
instead for individualized hearings for each and every
of the more than 5,000 people in jail at the time. In
response to the emergency petition, the Office of the
Chief Judge established an emergency bond review
process through which the Public Defender’s Office and
the State’s Attorney’s Office were to facilitate batch
reviews of cases. Sadly, the efficacy of the process was
severely limited by lack of coordination between the
FAITH LEADERS HOLD VIGIL IN
SOLIDARITY WITH PEOPLE INCARCERATED offices and judges who refused release upon review.
IN COOK COUNTY JAIL PRIOR TO ORAL Data from both the Public Defender’s and State’s
ARGUMENTS FOR THE PETITION FOR MASS Attorney’s offices showed that about 2,366 emergency
RELEASE ON MARCH 23, 2020.
bond reviews were held between March 23 and April
22, accounting for only about 56% of the people incarcerated in the jail at the time.
Releases were also limited by opposition from the State’s Attorney’s Office. According to analysis
by Coalition member Chicago Appleseed, the office opposed release in the vast majority of
cases—approximately 80%—between March 23 and April 22. Although judges often released
people even when the state’s attorney did not agree, judges granted over 90% of motions when
the State’s Attorneys agreed to release compared to only 53% over the State’s objection.
Nearly half of the more than 5,000 people incarcerated in Cook County Jail last spring
at the height of the pandemic never had their detention reconsidered. Instead, their court
dates were postponed with little or no information about when they might see a judge again
as the courts remained closed until July. About 750 people had their motions for release denied.
The people left behind by the emergency bond reviews were a diverse mix, and contrary to some
media narratives, not all were charged with serious felonies. By May 15th, there were still
over 300 people in the jail charged only with misdemeanors and over 100 people charged only
with alleged drug offenses.
7
Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit
Improves Conditions & Provides Oversight
After the emergency bond reviews and other organizing efforts resulted in only insufficient
numbers of people being released and no significant improvement in conditions inside the
jail, litigation seemed like the last and best option to protect incarcerated people from
the virus. On April 3rd, Coalition member Chicago Community Bond Fund partnered with
the civil rights attorneys at Loevy & Loevy, Civil Rights Corps, and the Roderick &
Solange MacArthur Justice Center to file an emergency class-action lawsuit against
Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart. The lawsuit sought the immediate release of medically
vulnerable people in the jail and improved conditions for anyone remaining inside. The basis
of the lawsuit’s arguments rested on the inherently dangerous congregate setting of the
jail and its inability to provide access to basic hygiene to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,
including access to frequent handwashing with soap and water and the use of alcohol-based
hand sanitizer.
Within a week, in response to the accounts of horrific conditions inside the jail from
incarcerated people gathered by organizers and attorneys, the federal court ordered
the Sheriff’s Office to implement policies ensuring sanitation, testing, social distancing
at intake, and the distribution of personal protective equipment. Several weeks later, the
initial temporary restraining order was converted
into a preliminary injunction after the Sheriff’s Office
failed to adequately improve conditions. While the Sheriff
appealed the preliminary injunction, a majority of the
measures ordered by the court survived the challenge,
and the Sheriff’s Office failed in its attempt to remove
itself from federal court oversight.
In support of the lawsuit, Chicago Community Bond
Fund volunteers have operated a hotline for people
incarcerated in the jail to call and share first-hand
accounts of conditions inside the jail. Dozens of volunteers
have taken calls seven days per week from 9:00 AM to
8:00 PM, capturing the experiences of people incarcerated
in the jail during the pandemic. These interviews were
used to draft declarations that served as the centerpiece
of litigation efforts, effectively combating the Sheriff’s
official line that everything was fine.
Thanks to reports from people inside and their loved
“MASS RELEASE NOW: SOLIDARITY ones, we were able to monitor conditions inside the jail
CARAVAN” ACTION ON APRIL 7, in real time. Of greatest concern was the impossibility
2020. | PHOTO BY SARAH-JI RHEE.
of social distancing and the number of people at serious
risk for complications from COVID-19 who remained incarcerated in the jail during the
pandemic. Nearly everyone in the jail, including people with serious health issues and
increased vulnerability to the virus, lives in extremely crowded spaces. Prior to the federal
court’s temporary restraining order, hundreds of people were being housed in dormitories
8
where beds are a mere two feet apart from each other. Even outside of the dormitory
settings, hundreds of people were crowded into cells holding two or more people. These
conditions make social distancing totally impossible and were a clear target for the litigation.
In response to the Court’s temporary restraining order, the jail stopped double-celling people
and dramatically reduced the number of people held in dormitories.
Access to hygiene products for incarcerated people was also demonstrably
insufficient prior to the federal court’s intervention. People incarcerated in Cook
County Jail were receiving just one hotel-sized bar of soap every two weeks, which was
to be used for not only handwashing but any other surface cleaning needed. After the
temporary restraining order was issued, soap distribution was increased to two bars a week
and hand sanitizer was made available, though access to it remains difficult. While this
was an improvement, incarcerated people and advocates have still found these measures
to be inadequate. The soap distributed to incarcerated people is used for hand washing,
showering, cleaning living spaces and clothes, and many people report using a full bar of the
soap in as little 48 hours.
Even prior to the pandemic, conditions inside the jail were filthy, with widespread instances
of inadequate cleaning and mold. During the pandemic, the Sheriff’s Office moved people
into divisions of the jail that had been closed for several years, and incarcerated people
reported that these areas were not cleaned before they were moved in and some even lacked
drinking water.
The preliminary injunction issued by the federal court remains in effect while litigation
efforts persist. Volunteers continue to monitor both conditions inside the jail and the Sheriff’s
attempts to meet the requirements laid out by the federal court.
THIS UNDATED PHOTO OF DORMS IN COOK COUNTY JAIL SHOWS THE
IMPOSSIBILITY OF SOCIAL DISTANCING.
9By the Numbers: Analyzing Cook County’s
Response to COVID-19 in the Jail
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Cook County Sheriff’s
Office allowed an examination of who was in Cook County Jail and why at different points in
time. We examined how racial disparities increased as a result of COVID-19 related releases, the
age of people released, the increased use of electronic monitoring, and what kinds of bond
decisions kept people incarcerated during the pandemic.
Racial Disparities: White People Benefitted Most
Although the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail dropped by nearly 1,700
between its highest point on March 9th and its lowest point on May 9th, decarceration
efforts benefitted white people incarcerated in the jail more than Black and Latinx
people. The number of Black people incarcerated in the jail dropped 27%, and the
number of Latinx people incarcerated in the jail dropped by 29%. In contrast, the
number of white people incarcerated in the jail dropped by 42%. Before the pandemic,
and now, far more Black people remain incarcerated at Cook County Jail than white people
despite the fact that Cook County itself is 56% white, 20% Latinx, and 26% Black. On August 31,
2020, there were 3,974 Black people inside the jail compared to just 438 white people.
Age: Older People Were Released at the Highest Rate
Release was primarily granted to people over the age of 45. The number of incarcerated people
between the ages of 45 and 50 decreased by 42%, and the number of people over 55 decreased
by 50%. While this is positive, these releases still left hundreds of people at high risk for COVID-19
complications in the jail. As of the end of May, there were still 632 people over age 45 in the jail.
Of the seven people who lost their lives to COVID-19 while in the custody of Cook County Jail, five
were over age 45, and the other two were both 42 years old.
Increase in Electronic Monitoring
At the same time that the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail was dropping, the
number of people incarcerated in their homes through electronic monitoring (EM) skyrocketed.
There are now more people under EM house arrest in Cook County than ever before. On
June 17, the program reached its peak of 3,365 people, and it has remained almost as
high throughout the summer. On August 31, the number of people on Sheriff’s EM was 3,260.
Every single one of these people is presumed innocent and still awaiting trial.
Both before and during the pandemic, electronic monitoring has overwhelmingly been used
to incarcerate Black and Latinx people. Ninety-one percent of the people in the electronic
monitoring program are either Black or Latinx. The rise of electronic monitoring has been driven
by many of the same factors that are causing the jail population to rise over the summer, including
that cases did not resolve or move forward due to court closures from March through July and the
ongoing lack of jury trials. It is also less common for people on house arrest to have money bonds;
often, there is no way for someone to secure their release from house arrest without getting
a judge to review and change the bond. Additionally, many judges place people on electronic
monitoring after reviewing unaffordable money bonds that had previously kept them in the jail—
rather than granting them their pretrial freedom, which they would have received if they were
able to afford to pay their original bonds in the first place. According to the Public Defender’s
office, between March 23 and April 24, about 448 people were released from Cook County Jail
with EM after having their bonds reviewed due to COVID-19.
10While the courts and elected officials see electronic monitoring as a reasonable alternative to
incarcerating people in jail during the pandemic, the reality is that house arrest also puts people
at risk. The conditions of house arrest with electronic monitoring are extremely restrictive. People
on house arrest with electronic monitoring are not allowed to perform the most basic of life
functions, such as going to the grocery store or laundromat. They need extensive documentation
to get permission to go to work or attend doctor’s appointments, and their requests are often
arbitrarily denied. Emergency medical attention, which is of particular importance in this moment,
is often nearly impossible to obtain. If a person is having a medical emergency, the Sheriff’s Office,
which oversees EM, requires onerous verification procedures. Often, Sheriff’s officers instruct the
person to request an ambulance and tell them they will only be allowed to go to the hospital if
the responding EMTs decide the person needs medical attention. Using an ambulance is expensive
and may not be covered by insurance, making this a major deterrent to obtaining medical care.
This procedural barrier is particularly concerning during the pandemic, when we are all instructed
to seek medical attention as soon as we show symptoms related to COVID-19.
Types of Bonds Throughout the COVID Crisis for People in
Cook County Jail
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Cook County
Sheriff’s Office reveals the reasons people were incarcerated in Cook County Jail at three
different points in time. The first date, April 1st, is from shortly after the state of emergency was
declared; the second date, May 13th, is when the number of people incarcerated in the jail was
at its lowest point; and the third date, August 31st, is from the end of summer and as close to
publication of this report as possible.
11The data shows that the majority of people in the jail during the pandemic could
have been released if Cook County Judges had properly reviewed their cases and set
a legally permissible bond. Many of the people currently in the jail, however, have never
had a meaningful review of their bond status. It is also important to recognize that the original
bond decisions were almost all made quickly, in bond hearings usually lasting less than five
minutes, with little evidence presented. When the courts slowed down and only granted certain
detainees emergency bond reviews, thousands were left behind by the process, and languished
in the jail for months with no information about when they might next see a judge who could
review their detention.
Explanation of terms:
Money Bonds: These people have money bonds on all of their cases. If they had the money to
pay those bonds, they could walk out of the jail.
Reviewable No-Bond Holds: These people have a “no-bond hold” in one or more cases, which
was set by a Cook County Judge. Although these holds are sometimes based on the seriousness
of the charge, they also arise in less serious cases where a person is on probation or has another
case pending when they are arrested. Legally, a substantial hearing process is required to hold a
person without bond, and convincing evidence has to show the person is likely to hurt someone
if released or will not show up for court. This constitutional requirement, however, is almost
never met in Cook County. Nearly all no-bond holds are set in short initial bond hearings, and
few result from a meaningful review of a person’s likelihood to flee the jurisdiction or pose a
danger to anyone.
Electronic Monitoring Orders - No Place to Stay: These people were ordered to the Sheriff’s
Electronic Monitoring program but have no approved home to live in while they await trial on
house arrest. This could be either because the individuals are homeless or because the Sheriff’s
office has decided that their home is not an acceptable location. These people could easily be
freed if a judge removed the condition of Electronic Monitoring.
Not Releasable: These people cannot be released by a Cook County judge because they
have a case in another jurisdiction and an authority outside of Cook County has ordered their
detention.
Type of Bond April 1 May 13 August 31
24.7% 26.8% 23.6%
Unaffordable Money Bond (1185) (1078) (1233)
No-Bond Hold - Reviewable 33.7% 54.8% 52.5%
(1618) (2206) (2744)
EM Order - No Place to Stay 3.2% 1.5% 2.4%
(151) (61) (127)
61.5% 83.1% 78.5%
Total in Need of Bond Review
(2954) (4025) (2994)
38.4% 16.9% 21.6%
Not Releasable
(1844) (1128)
12The COVID-19 Community Courtwatching Effort
In May, as the number of people in Cook County Jail reached new historic lows, the Coalition
to End Money Bond focused on preventing new admissions to the jail. Concerned that warmer
temperatures would bring more arrests and push the number of people in jail back up, the
Coalition trained more than 100 people to observe Cook County’s Central Bond Court as part of
the COVID-19 Community Courtwatching Project. Over the course of two weeks, volunteers
observed every bond hearing in Cook County’s Central Bond Court. Courtwatchers observed bond
court from May 18th through June 6th and witnessed 868 bond hearings.
The goal of the project was to see how, if at all, bond decisions were being impacted
by the COVID-19 pandemic and to maintain public pressure on judges not to order new
people into the jail. Next to the decision of innocence or guilt, the type of bond someone
receives is the most important decision made in a criminal case. On a normal day, an unaffordable
money bond could mean the difference between going home to one’s community or being locked
in a cage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, bond decisions have become a matter of life and death.
Unconstitutional, unaffordable
money bonds were the single largest
reason people were admitted to Cook County
Jail during the pandemic.
Despite these stakes, observers watched judges continue to set unaffordable money bonds, even
as defense attorneys continuously raised the dangerous conditions inside the jail. While a majority
of bonds set during the observation period were I-bonds (which do not require payment of money
to secure pretrial release), when money bonds were set, they were most often set at an amount
the person said they could not afford to pay. For example, a majority of people aged 50 and older
who appeared in bond court during our courtwatching effort were either given an unaffordable
money bond or no bond, resulting in their incarceration.
Black people are disportionately targeted by police and as a consequence are overrepresented
in Cook County’s Central Bond Court. Eighty percent of the people who appeared in Central
Bond Court during our courtwatching were Black, despite the fact that only 26% of Cook County
residents are Black. This display of systemic racism would be alarming under normal circumstances,
but it is particularly alarming during a pandemic that has found Black people to be at the highest
risk for complications related to COVID-19. Black people were also given more unaffordable
money bonds than any other racial group and were among the most likely to be denied
release entirely.
While other county stakeholders were taking steps to reduce the number of people incarcerated
in Cook County Jail, our courtwatching efforts revealed that judges’ decisions were insufficiently
changed by the outbreak of COVID-19. Unconstitutional, unaffordable money bonds
were the single largest reason people were admitted to Cook County Jail during the
pandemic.
13Types of Bond
Type of Bond Total Percentage
I-Bond (No money required) 322 37%
D-Bond (Money required) 338 39%
No Bond (Denied release) 62 7%
Not Available 146 17%
Affordability of Money Bonds
Types of Money Bond Total Percentage
Affordable 129 38%
Unaffordable 178 53%
Not Available 31 9%
14EA,PI: East Asian, Pacific Islander
Multi: Multiracial
SA/I/A: South Asian/Indian/Arab
Type of Bonds by Race
Type of
Black EA/PI Latinx Multi SA/I/A White
Bonds
262 38 29 2 6
D-Bond (49%) 0 (48%) (38%) (100%) (27%)
I-Bond 223 1 39 41 14
(42%) (100%) (49%) (53%) 0 (64%)
No Bond 50 3 7 2
(9%)
0 (4%) (9%)
0 (9%)
Total 535 1 80 77 2 22
Affordability of Bonds by Race
Type of
Black EA/PI Latinx Multi SA/I/A White
Money Bond
102 13 13 1
Affordable (42%) 0 (41%) (46%) (50%) 0
Unaffordable 138 19 15 1 5
(58%)
0 (59%) (54%) (50%) (100%)
Type of Bonds by Age
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 years
Type of
old or
Bond years old years old years old years old years old
older
93 158 52 24 7 3
D-Bond (40%) (49%) (54%) (57%) (37%) (50%)
I-Bond 118 138 39 12 9 2
(51%) (43%) (40%) (29%) (47%) (33%)
No Bond 12 25 6 6 3 1
(9%) (8%) (6%) (14%) (16%) (17%)
Total 223 321 97 42 19 6
15Affordability of Bonds by Age
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 years
years years years years years old or
old old old old old older
30 71 13 10 3 2
Affordable (36%) (49%) (29%) (43%) (50%) (67%)
Unaffordable 54 75 32 13 3 1
(64%) (51%) (71%) (57%) (50%) (33%)
Type of Bonds by Gender
Women Men
21 314
D-Bond (30%) (49%)
I-Bond 42 271
(61%) (42%)
No Bond 6 56
(9%) (9%)
Total 69 641
Affordability of Bonds by Gender
Women Men
3 126
Affordable (19%) (44%)
Unaffordable 13 162
(81%) (56%)
*Race and ethnicity identifications were made by observers and are not based on
self-identification. They are therefore imperfect, but also may reflect the assumptions
made by and implicit biases held by judges and other actors.
16Types of Bonds by Judge
Judge Judge Judge Judge Judge Judge
Willis Beach Navarro Lyke Marubio Ortiz
26 11 117 71 83 30
D-Bond (43%) (19%) (51%) (44%) (58%) (45%)
I-Bond 34 45 76 79 54 34
(56%) (79%) (33%) (48%) (38%) (52%)
No Bond 1 1 38 13 7 2
(2%) (2%) (16%) (8%) (5%) (3%)
Affordability of Bonds by Judge
Judge Judge Judge Judge Judge Judge
Willis Beach Navarro Lyke Marubio Ortiz
7 1 31 51 29 10
Affordable (32%) (11%) (31%) (75%) (36%) (37%)
Unaffordable 15 8 70 17 51 17
(68%) (89%) (69%) (25%) (64%) (63%)
17Lack of Disposition: Cases at a Standstill
Since the COVID-19 Community Courtwatching Program ended, the number of people in the jail
has continued to increase. One primary reason the number of people incarcerated in the jail has
grown—and will continue to grow—is that the normal outflows that lead to release are closed or
are operating much more slowly than they did before March. Under normal conditions, people
cycle through the jail, entering when they are arrested and leaving when they pay a money bond,
get a new bond, or when their cases resolve. When people are found not guilty or have their cases
dismissed, they leave the jail without any sentence. When people are convicted, they are either
placed on probation and released from jail or are sentenced to time in prison and transferred to
the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). People are also transferred to IDOC
when they are picked up on parole violations and leave the jail to have those violations resolved
by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
Because of the risk of COVID-19 spread, IDOC has limited transfers to IDOC from all jails in the
state, including Cook County Jail. This has included people sentenced to prison, but it also includes
people arrested for parole violations. Incarceration for parole violations is particularly difficult to
address in the current context. None of those alleged violations have yet been proven, and many
of them are technical or minor violations, such as failure to obey curfew or meet with a parole
officer. Sometimes the violations are caused by a new misdemeanor arrest. Even if the new case is
dismissed, the parole violation caused by the arrest traps them in Cook County Jail. As of August
31, 2020, there were over 400 people awaiting transfer to IDOC without any way to resolve their
charges or violations or to bond out of jail.
More importantly, however, cases in the criminal courts are not resolving as a routine matter of
course by ending in a plea of guilty, a trial, or a dismissal. Although Cook County courts re-opened
in July over Zoom, fewer cases than usual are being heard. According to the State’s Attorney’s
Office’s data, the median length of a felony case that ends in a plea of guilty is approximately
five months. As of June 30, the courts are significantly behind schedule in resolving cases. This
is unsurprising given that the courts were restricted to emergency motions for the majority of
the spring, but it still causes serious issues, particularly for allowing people to resolve their cases
and exit the jail. According to the State’s Attorney’s Office’s public data, in a “normal”
year (2017-2019), the Cook County Criminal Courts enter an average of 6,759 case
dispositions between April 1 and June 30. These include, dismissals, guilty pleas, and
trials. In 2020, the courts resolved just 463 cases—just 7% of their usual total.
There are fewer cases being initiated as well, but the decrease is not nearly as dramatic and
thus does not balance out the lack of resolutions. On average, between 2017-2019, the courts
arraigned 5,266 cases between April and June. This year, the courts arraigned 1,473—about 28%
the normal number of cases.
18Conclusion
The dramatic decrease in the number of people in Cook County Jail this past spring was driven by
a combination of grassroots community organizing and system-initiated emergency bond reviews.
During the busiest week for emergency bond hearings, March 19-26, a total of 822 people were
released from the jail. Not all of those people, however, were released as a result of their cases
being brought in front of a judge. Many scraped together funds to pay unaffordable money
bonds that had been previously unattainable for their families.
Unfortunately, the number of people incarcerated in the jail has almost returned to pre-pandemic
levels. As of September 4, 2020, there are 5,159 people in the jail, 1,128 more than on May
9th. This large number of people makes the jail again highly vulnerable to another COVID-19
outbreak. The number of people incarcerated in the jail has risen from its May 2020 low for three
primary reasons: lack of bond reviews, cases are starting and not ending, and the ongoing use of
unaffordable money bonds by judges.
As described earlier, the COVID-19 emergency bond reviews stopped short of reaching everyone
in the spring and have not been resumed for people admitted this summer. Hundreds of people
were released during the first week of emergency bond reviews, but there has not been a similar
wave of releases since. This is true despite the fact that 1,425 of the people in jail on August 31,
2020 were admitted to the jail after April 1 and thus were not reviewed as part of the original
emergency process.
Secondly, people with open cases must be given a way to resolve them. As of early September, the
Cook County Courts have been closed or partially closed for almost six months. New arrests and
cases filed, however, continue to bring new people into the jail. Unless the courts begin allowing
cases to move forward, the number of people incarcerated in the jail will continue to rise rapidly.
Contrary to some media narratives, what is not driving the significant increase in the number of
people in jail is any increase in crime or arrests. In fact, the number of felony arrests was drastically
lower between May 1 and July 31, 2020 than it was during the same months in 2019. Chicago
Police referred fewer than half as many felony arrests to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review
during that time.
To once again successfully reduce the number of people in Cook County Jail, the State’s
Attorney, Public Defender, and judges must work together to resolve outstanding cases
and resume bond reviews for every person in custody who has not had one since the
pandemic began.
Most importantly, every elected official or other stakeholder must address the large
number of people who remain incarcerated simply because they cannot afford to pay
a money bond. During the pandemic, the majority of new people booked into Cook
County Jail were admitted because judges ordered them to pay unaffordable money
bonds.
Unfortunately, the issue of unaffordable money bonds could have been avoided had Cook County
Central Bond Court judges simply followed existing policy. In 2017, Cook County’s Chief Judge
Timothy Evans issued General Order 18.8A, which instructs judges to set bonds only at amounts
that people can afford. This court rule was put in place in response to the Coalition to End
Money Bond’s community organizing and litigation efforts demanding an end to wealth-based
incarceration in Cook County. While judges do not adhere to the order consistently, community
efforts to hold judges accountable have caused the number of people incarcerated in the jail
19to drop by more than 2,000 on any given day compared to before the order. This reduction has
protected the constitutional rights of people in Cook County and saved lives during the pandemic.
Had the order been fully implemented, even more lives would have been saved—
especially given that two of the people who died were in jail only due to unpaid money
bonds. In addition, hundreds of people may not have suffered the trauma of being in danger or
contracting a serious illness in the worst possible conditions.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are incarcerated in Illinois pretrial simply because
they cannot afford to pay a money bond. The incarceration of these individuals violates both the
federal and state constitutions. A person’s access to wealth should never determine whether they
are caged. It is truly disturbing that in this moment, the size of a person’s bank account is allowed
to be the determining factor in whether they are exposed to a life-threatening illness. COVID-19
has further magnified the harms caused by pretrial incarceration, and the Illinois
legislature must take action to end money bond. Lives are depending on it.
PHOTO FROM A #BLACKLIVESMATTER CAR CARAVAN IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO. SUMMER 2020.
COVID-19 has further magnified the
harms caused by pretrial incarceration,
and the Illinois legislature must take action to
end money bond. Lives are depending on it.
20About the Coalition to End Money Bond
The Coalition to End Money Bond formed in May 2016 as a group of member organizations with
the shared goal of stopping the large-scale jailing of people simply because they were unable
to pay a money bond. In addition to ending the obvious unfairness of allowing access to money
determine who is incarcerated and who is free pending trial, the Coalition is committed to
reducing the overall number of people in jail and under pretrial supervision as part of a larger
fight against mass incarceration.
The Coalition to End Money Bond is tackling bail reform and the abolition of money bond as part
of its member organizations’ larger efforts to achieve racial and economic justice for all residents
of Illinois.
The current members of the Coalition to End Money Bond are:
ACLU of Illinois
Nehemiah Trinity Rising
A Just Harvest
The Next Movement at
Believers Bail Out Trinity United Church of
Christ
Chicago Appleseed Fund
for Justice The Shriver Center on
Poverty Law
Community Renewal Southsiders Organized
Society for Unity and Liberation
(SOUL)
Illinois Justice Project
The People’s Lobby
Justice and Witness
Ministry of the Workers Center for Racial
Chicago Metropolitan Justice
Association, Illinois
Conference, United
Church of Christ
21www.endmoneybond.org
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